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February Bucks the Trend

By

mark gongloff The Wall Street Journal Online

Updated Feb. 11, 2005 12:47 p.m. ET

After a down January, U.S. stocks were expected to turn in a down February, as well &ndash; after all, February is usually one of the worst months of the year for stocks, and losing Januarys are usually followed by losing Februarys. So far, however, history has not been repeating itself.

U.S. stocks stumbled out of the gate this morning, weighed down by last night's report from Dell of weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter sales and a warning of more of the same in the first quarter. But stocks quickly reversed course,...